Jail drug dealing 'will rise' under leaked plans to end cell checks

Daily cell checks are to be scrapped under confidential plans being drawn up by the Prison Service to save money, The Observer has learnt.

Prison officers warn the move would turn some jail wings into 'no-go' areas because the amount of drugs and weapons in circulation inside would soar.

In an attempt to balance its budget at a time when the prison population is rising, the service is also considering cutting back on the use of voluntary and mandatory drug-testing while locking prisoners up for greater lengths of time during the day.

Prison officers claim that the proposals, which would affect all but category A high security prisons, would mean less time spent on rehabilitation, with the effect that reoffending rates would rise. The plans are in an internal Prison Service letter to governors and senior prison officers marked 'draft-restricted-management'. Leaked to The Observer it spells out the impact of impending budget cuts on British jails.

The letter, from Michael Spurr, the Prison Service's deputy director-general, explains to governors and prison officers that it has commissioned a review 'to consider cost savings' in light of the fact it has to make some £60 million worth of annual cuts by 2008. The letter says potential savings could be made by 'revising the current arrangement for voluntary/mandatory drug testing'. The POA says it understands the plan would be to scale back the amount of drug testing in prisons by a minimum of 10 per cent.

'We've got a massive problem with drugs in prison,' said Brian Caton, the POA's general secretary. 'Most offences are linked to drugs and yet now they're proposing these cutbacks. These cuts are putting society further at risk.'

Drugs in prison sell for around five times their normal street value due to their scarcity. Prison officers fear reducing testing would give a green light to criminal gangs seeking to control the supply of drugs in prisons.

Another controversial proposal is to scrap daily 'cell fabric tests' in which officers examine every part of a cell to ensure it is secure. The inquiry into the murder of the teenager, Zahid Mubarek, at Feltham young offenders institution, recommended such checks should take place on a daily basis as they allow officers to keep an eye on prisoners, check for drugs and weapons and make sure the cells are safe.

Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show a rise of 541 per cent in reports of prisoner-on-prisoner violence over the past 10 years. In 1996 there were 1,791 incidents in British prisons; by 2006 that figure was 11,476.

'These shocking figures reveal how a decade of Labour mismanagement has left our prisons in crisis and the public at risk,' said Liberal Democrat shadow justice secretary, David Heath.

The Prison Service letter also talks about introducing a 'standardised core day' across the prison estate. The POA says this would mean prisoners locked inside their cells between lunch and dinner, reducing the time they have to take part in classes and skills workshops - key elements of rehabilitation.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice confirmed the letter's authenticity. 'As Michael Spurr made clear in his letters to unions and area managers, this work is being undertaken to inform planning discussions,' she said. 'It is a management exercise and at this stage there is no proposal to change existing arrangements in establishments.'